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B.Boyd on "PF" denigrators, from CHW
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In a message dated 21/02/2007 16:24:21 GMT Standard Time, nabokv-l@UTK.EDU
writes:
What puzzles me about the denigrators of the quality of "Pale Fire" is that
the examples they cite of the poem's supposed clunkers do not seem clunky to
me. "'False azure' indeed." Indeed what?
Brian Boyd
Here's a suggestion: Azure means blue. Only secondarily does it connote sky.
A thing is either blue, or it isn't. It can't be "falsely" blue. Shade's
English is not as precise as VN's, and a poet should not allow himself to be so
sloppy --- unless it's with deliberate aesthetic intent.
As to why what doesn't sound clunky to some sounds so to others --- verb sap.
Fair criticism is not denigration.
Charles
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